A Carrier Docks in Da Nang, and History Sails Quietly Alongside It
USS George Washington opens its flight deck to Vietnamese visitors, five decades after American ships left these waters under very different circumstances
By Solomon "Customs" Bridges
DA NANG, Vietnam — On the flight deck where fighter jets normally launch, Vietnamese sailors and civilians posed for photographs this weekend, guests aboard the USS George Washington during a routine port call that began July 31.
The Nimitz-class carrier, the Navy calls it "forward-deployed" — meaning it's based abroad, in Japan, ready to move — brought sailors ashore for something less martial than soccer: matches against Vietnamese sailors on Aug. 1, and open tours that let ordinary visitors walk a flight deck built for combat. Photos released by U.S. Central Command show Vietnamese guests posing near the ship's island, teenagers snapping pictures, sailors from both countries lining up for a friendly kickabout.
The Navy describes the ship as "a long-standing symbol of the United States' commitment to maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific," operating with allies across the 7th Fleet, the Navy's largest.
What the press materials don't say, because they don't need to, is what a U.S. aircraft carrier tied up in Da Nang harbor means to anyone who remembers what this stretch of coast looked like fifty years ago. This is the region's arithmetic now: China's growing navy on one side of the ledger, Vietnam's careful hedging on the other, and Washington angling for a foothold with soccer balls and flight-deck tours rather than landing craft.
No weapons changed hands here, no agreements were signed. It was, by the Navy's own account, a scheduled visit — the kind that happens routinely across a fleet built to be seen as much as used. But in a region where every port call gets read as a signal, this one was read plenty.
[Editor's note: Sourcing for this item is limited to U.S. Navy-released photo captions via DVIDS; no independent Vietnamese government or press comment was available.]
— Compiled from U.S. Navy photo releases distributed by U.S. Central Command via DVIDS.
The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."